No Khel Ratna this time: Chess prodigy Divya, decathlete Tejaswin among 24 recommended for Arjuna Award

NEW DELHI: No sportsperson has been recommended for the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna award for 2025, marking the first time in a decade that the nation’s highest sporting honour has not been conferred. The selection panel that met in the Capital on Wednesday picked 24 names for the Arjuna award but decided not to grant the Khel Ratna to anyone, TOI has reliably learnt.

Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!

The recommendations will be sent to sports minister Mansukh Mandaviya for his final assent.

Names of compound archer Jyothi Surekha Vennam and women’s World Cup-winning cricketers Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana were debated by committee members but were ultimately not considered for the Khel Ratna for varied reasons. This is only the third occasion since the award was instituted in 1991-92 that no athlete has been chosen for the Khel Ratna, the other instances being in 2008 and 2014. Known as the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna until Aug, 2021, the award carries a cash prize of Rs 25 lakh, a medallion and a citation.




In a first, yogasana athlete Aarti Pal was recommended for the Arjuna award, five years after the sport was formally recognised by the ministry. Among others recommended award were chess prodigy Divya Deshmukh, the first Indian woman to win the FIDE women’s World Cup earlier this year; decathlete Tejaswin Shankar, who won silver at the Asian Games in 2023; and the women’s badminton pairing of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand.

Meanwhile, it was learnt that Jyothi was again overlooked as compound archery was not part of the Olympics until the Paris Games last year. Compound archery has been added to Los Angeles 2028. The 29-year-old world champion and Asia No 1 archer has been logging the highest points among Khel Ratna applicants for the past three years.

Similarly, the names of Harmanpreet Kaur, women’s cricket captain and her deputy, Smriti Mandhana were discussed at length but were left out of the recommendations as there is no specific points system to assess cricketers’ performance. “In such a case, the committee relies on the recommendations made by the Indian cricket board (BCCI). There were no nominations of either men’s or women’s cricketers by the president or secretary general of the BCCI,” a source said. Pacer Mohammed Shami was the last cricketer to receive the honour in 2023.

Arjuna award recommendations:

• Tejaswin Shankar (Athletics), Priyanka (Athletics), Narender (Boxing), Vidit Gujrathi (Chess), Divya Deshmukh (Chess), Dhanush Srikanth (Deaf Shooting), Pranati Nayak (Gymnastics), Rajkumar Pal (Hockey), Surjeet (Kabaddi), Nirmala Bhati (Kho Kho), Rudransh Khandelwal (Para-Shooting), Ekta Bhyan (Para-athletics), Padmanabh Singh (Polo), Arvind Singh (Rowing), Akhil Sheoran (Shooting), Mehuli Ghosh (Shooting), Sutirtha Mukherjee (TT), Sonam Malik (Wrestling), Aarti (Yoga), Treesa Jolly, Gayatri Gopichand (Badminton), Lalremsiami (Hockey), Mohammed Afsal (Athletics), Pooja (Kabaddi)

Get an chance to win ₹5000 Amazon Voucher by taking part in India's Biggest Habit Index! Take the survey here